Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2021 i Camera

There will be few Australians who don’t remember the shocking news of the sudden death in 2006 of the larger-than-life wildlife expert, conservationist, environmentalist, and TV presenter, Steve Irwin. The good news is that his life’s work in animal conservation has been carried on by the Irwin family at the Australia Zoo. Located on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, Australia Zoo was established with the objective of becoming the best wildlife conservation facility in the world. When he isn’t involved in the zoo’s many activities – it occupies over 700 acres – Rob Irwin is in pursuit of wildlife armed with his cameras. The winner of the People’s Choice Award in the 2021 Wildlife Photographer Of The Year competition, Rob has become an accomplished photographer and, while yet to hit 20 years…

he steam train - or more precisely, so as not to upset the true enthusiasts, the steam locomotive – has left a lasting impression on those who can remember them when they were an everyday occurrence. And the handful of preserved examples still draws a crowd wherever they go. They are a truly dynamic multi-sensory experience… sight, sound, smell and touch; maybe even taste too. Consequently, books celebrating the steam era continue to be published, but just about all of them concentrate on the machinery rather than the men (and it was all men back then) who operated and maintained them. Without the human involvement, the steam locomotive was just a static lump of cold metal. Back in the 1960s, a couple of teenage enthusiasts seemed to be instinctively aware…

The original Lumix GH5 ticked a lot of boxes for a lot of videographers and its reputation has steadily grown to put it on par with the later versions of the Canon EOS 5D. Like Canon, no doubt Panasonic is mindful of the cachet now attached to this model number, hence the Mark II camera and an all-new GH6. Panasonic is also aware that the GH5’s basic recipe also works for a great many users and the GH6, while a necessity in today’s competitive market, is possibly more than they need or want. Thus the Mark II upgrades are mostly aimed at giving video-makers the things that they really do want... 10-bit 4:2:0 4K recording internally at 50/60p with no cropping or restrictive recording time limits, 10-bit 4:2:2 colour externally…

Data storage continues to be a key issue for photographers as the size of still image fi les continue to get bigger - especially if you regularly shoot RAW+JPEG - and more video is being shot at ever higher bit rates (up to 400 Mbps with 4K). There’s a huge range of options for both desktop and portable applications - with bewildering lists of specifications - but in many instances, all you really want is a straightforward, no-frills device that’s fast enough, tough enough, allows for basic file management and is affordable. The Toshiba-branded line-up of Canvio Flex external hard drives is designed to fit this brief for photographers and video-makers. They’re still based on a disk drive with moving parts rather than a solid state drive (SSD) that many…

NIKON GOES RETRO WITH LATEST Z MOUNT BODY FOLLOWING IN THE footsteps of the Df retro-styled full-frame DSLR, Nikon has introduced a mirrorless camera body that pays homage to its classical 35mm SLRs. The new Z fc is essentially built around the APS-C format Z 50, but is styled to look very much like the hugely popular FM2 that was introduced in 1982. The Z fc’s retro styling elements include the EVF cover – which is virtually the same as the FM2’s pentaprism cover, including leatherette inserts and a period ‘Nikon’ nameplate and classic dials – hewn from aluminium – for setting shutter speeds, ISO, and exposure compensation. The standard model has black leatherette inserts, but six other colours are available, including mint green, coral pink, and amber brown. While…

• Learn and understand the animal you want to photograph before you try to track it down in the wild. Understanding the behaviour of an animal first will get you much closer to the action. • You really need to be patient if you want a great shot. Capturing an animal in its natural habitat isn’t easy, so I’ve often found that hiding nearby, watching and waiting for the right moment is a great strategy. • Always be ready for the shot. Sometimes the action happens so quickly and you have to throw point number two out the window! I find that if I’m out photographing in varied lighting conditions, I set my shutter speed high and keep ISO on auto. I had one experience where I watched a pride…

If you’re still shooting with a DSLR – and thousands upon thousands of photographers are – then it’s very likely that you’re completely happy with it, and don’t particularly want to be forced into making a change. Snag is, the DSLR’s days are basically done as just about all the mainstream camera makers pour their resources into their mirrorless systems. While there are new mirrorless cameras arriving all the time, there’s only been one new DSLR in nearly two years… and it’s basically an upgrade of an existing model. It’s possible – but by no means certain – that the pro-level DSLR will continue but, further down, it’s going to be mirrorless all the way. “The DSLR’s days are basically done as just about all the mainstream camera makers pour…

WINNER Two Australian icons - the beach and a kangaroo - nicely captured by Emma Jones to give us just a little taste of a summer when hopefully we’ll all be able to get out and about. The location is Lucky Bay in Western Australia’s Cape Le Grand National Park. Emma used an Olympus PEN E-P5 with an M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO zoom lens. FUJIFILM SHOWCASE 2022 The 2021 Fujifilm Showcase is now closed with the final round of winners appearing on these pages. However, the 2022 competition is open and you have been automatically entered if your submissions arrived after 31 August. You can enter the Fujifilm Showcase as many times as you like during the year, submitting up to four photographs each time. Please make sure…

The Picture Mercedes-AMG GT3 leads Honda NSX GT3 Evo and BMW M6 GT3 through The Dipper at Mount Panorama during the 2020 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour race in the opening round of the 2020 Intercontinental GT Challenge for GT3 and GT4 class sports cars. The Photographer Australian Camera magazine editor Paul Burrows is almost as passionate about motor racing as he is about cameras, and first went to Mount Panorama in 1983 to shoot what was then known as the James Hardie 1000 race for touring cars. He has been photographing track and rally events at various levels ever since. The Equipment Nikon D4 with a Tamron AF 100-400mm f/4.5- 6.3 Di VC USD set at roughly 170mm. Manual focus and manual exposure control – f/13 at 1/1250 second…

Our very own Sony photography awards is celebrating its sixth edition and, this year, attracted over 4,900 entries. The annual Sony Alpha Awards is open to photographers from Australia and New Zealand, and its stated objective is “to drive creativity, reward professionals and enthusiasts alike, and showcase exceptional photography work”. Entries were invited in 12 categories with up to $37,000 of Sony camera gear up for grabs. The winner of the grand prize, Matt Beaver from Australia, collected $10,000 of equipment for his efforts with an image titled The Fog. The winners of each category received Sony equipment to the value of $2,000 each. Jun Yoon, who is head of Sony Digital Imaging ANZ, commented, “It is an honour to be able to showcase the phenomenal work of our winners.…

When we reviewed the original GH5 way back in our July/ August 2017 issue, we suggested that it had all the necessary ingredients to become a cult camera similar to Canon’s EOS 5D Marks II and III (the IV was yet to come). You really didn’t need that much insight given just how well everything came together in the GH5 and, while we also commended Panasonic for being on top of “the needs and wants of photographers’,’ it’s been videomakers who made the camera such a hit. Survey anybody using hybrid cameras in video production and there’s a good chance that their weapon of choice is either the EOS 5D IV or the GH5/GH5S. The Micro Four Thirds sensor size ticks a lot of boxes for videomakers and, despite all…

The introduction of Epson’s A4 format EcoTank ET-8500 and A3+ format ET- 8550 bulk ink multi functional photo printers - now with six-colour long-life Claria sets - represents a breakout into new territory for photo printers, with re-fillable ink tanks replacing throw-away cartridges. Until recent times, prosumer-level A4 and A3+ format multifunctional printers were all about a relatively inexpensive printer operating on very expensive small-capacity ink cartridges. The arrival of bulk bottled ink reversed the situation to a relatively expensive printer, but with more economical ink bottles. Buyers could make a choice depending on expected usage. What might negate everything for serious print-making was the use of inks in the EcoTank system that really didn’t get a mention as far as print longevity was concerned. For general home and office…